Malta Books

In the spring of 1565, two great armies met on the battlefield of an island in the heart of the Mediterranean. This war came to be known as the Great Siege of Malta. I consider it to be the great battle of the Cross and the Koran, and a victory for either side would preserve Christianity or open Europe to the infidels of Islam. It was an encounter that saw a fierce three-month battle with the greatest military force in the history of mankind, the Ottoman Empire.

I am a college student at Indiana State University and writing a paper on the Great Siege of Malta can be nevery difficult without primary sources. Cassola's book fills in the gap, if you can not fly to Malta and visit the library. I highly recommend the book to anyone wanting to know more about the Great Siege of Malta, which halted the advancement of the Ottoman Empire and preserved Christianity in `the soft under-belly of Europe.'

It is a small boring book of information, but a "must" for primary sources.

This is an excellent book, well written and expertly researched.
Dr. Berg has provided a superb historical overview of this marvelous country and its rich history.

I am interested in buying this book if available.

In 1096, when the first Crusaders arrived in Jerusalem, they discovered the Hospital of St. John, which healed the wounds of the heroic knights. It would be this encounter that led the hospitallers to rally around their leader Brother Gerard de Saxo and created the Order of St. John. The knights returned to Europe, but they never forgot the kindness of the hospital that healed their wounded. After the first Crusade, the Order grew in importance and received many appreciative donations that helped solidify the future for the Order. The activities of the Order of St. John throughout its history assumed the role as the defenders of Christianity. The Order gained importance and power because the knights of the order fought bravely against the vigorous Islamic world. The knights defended the Holy Land for a long time, but were finally expelled at their last stronghold at Acre in 1291. The Order of St. John moved to Cyprus for fifteen years, then Rhodes, and lastly Malta.

It is a splendid paperback on the Knights of Malta that starts with the Crusades and moves onward to the island of Malta. I recommend reading along with Sire's Knights of Malta (1994). It is an incredible book for people interested in learning in greater detail the Christian and Muslim rivalries that led to the Knights of Malta.

I have read over 20 books on the Knights Of Malta. This book by Roger Peyrefitte will give you details into the Order during a critical time in the Orders history. The names are real and have not been changed to protect anyone. The reader can feel the power plays between the Vatican and the Order of Malta. A real page turner.

This book was great. It had the history of the order, but more interesting was the Government and structure of the order. The author gives good detail about the Hospitaller activities of this most prestigious organization. This book is styled almost like a "pledges" handbook and I felt my self get totally immersed. Rosita McHugh has done a wonderful job in explaining the great works that Order of Malta performs all around the world.

"The great temples of Malta lay claim to be the world's most impressive prehistoric monuments. They stand out as the single great achievement of the society which created them - a society without cities or written records or any attributes of a civilization other than the monuments themselves. Most of the temples were built before 3,000 B.C. and perhaps several centuries earlier, and this in itself makes outside inspiration unlikely.
This book presents a superb pictorial record of all the temples, hypogea, and other sites. It describes the wonderful statuettes, pottery, and other material that has been excavated from each site, with more than 300 photographs and illustrations, in full color ... explore[s] key themes such as dating, architecture, stratification, ceramics, and the artistic objects found in the temples ... features a detailed visual treatment of 30 key sites with photography, artwork, and maps of Malta and Gozo, showing the exact locations of the prehistoric temples." -- from the back cover.
Great diagrams and photos and still affordable!
CAUTION: "Hardcover" and "Paperback" attached to this entry are not the same book.

This is an amazing book, both informative and well written. It is nicely formatted and extremely easily read. Though the book is not very long, I felt that I had a learned a lot from it. I actually had no previous interest in Malta what so ever, but now I admit, genuinely, that I have a desire to pursue and learn more about the small island archipelago. The Author is a truly amazing man and Rutgers University is greatly privileged to have his tenure.

Published in 1990, there is no doubt that some of the images in this book have changed. However, since the island has been inhabited for thousands of years and lie roughly in the center of the Mediterranean, there is a deep-rooted culture. This lengthy history has also led to the development of a large number of tourist attractions and they change very little, even over decades.
Most of the images here are of the cultural health, wealth and history of the islands and those resources are impressive. There are cathedrals, dwellings, statues, paintings, crafts and ancient rock carvings. Malta is rarely mentioned in the news or in travel literature and that is unfortunate. It is a country with a rich heritage that rivals that of Greece and Italy, and from this book it is easy to see.

I have been searching for a copy of this book for years. My Father was mentioned in this book and had a copy of it but my younger sister has it.I think this book gives a very good indication of how Malta was abused in the war. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel.